About us

Our Story

Lillan Gorillan is the alter ego of creative director Kristin Enstrom. Growing up in Sweden, Kristin spent her childhood rocking ‘70s hand-me-downs in the back of the family Volvo, playing on the snowy streets of Gothenburg, and never quite doing as she was told. A mischievous little tomboy, her brother gave her the nickname 'lillan gorillan', or little gorilla, and it stuck.

The little gorilla grew up to become a model, honing her sense of style and eye for design on the catwalk. When she had a baby gorilla of her own she realised there were few children’s wear brands she wanted to dress him in, so she decided to start her own, inspired by her own childhood and her busig spirit. Lillan Gorillan is that brand. We hope your little gorillas like it as much as ours.

Lillan Gorillan and the busig spirit

Lillan Gorillan is inspired by the Swedish concept of busig. Pronounced 'buu-sic', to be busig is to be mischievous and a little bit rascally. Naughty, but cute too. It’s our philosophy that kids shouldn’t be quiet and good. They should be busig.

At Lillan Gorillan we don’t like rules or doing what we’re told. We blow raspberries at gender stereotypes, and stick our tongues out at convention. We believe the only boxes kids should be put in are the make-believe cardboard spaceship kind. So our clothes are unisex and designed to withstand epic adventures. We don’t like following the crowd, we design all our own original prints.

We’d rather be playing than shopping, so all our clothes are designed to be handed down to little brothers and sisters, and passed on to friends. We use clever little ankle cuff designs on our jersey pants and folded up jeans with stretch waists to make sure our clothes fit for longer. That doesn’t just mean less shopping, it means lower environmental costs too. We may hate rules, but we love our planet. We want to protect it for future generations, so the majority of our clothes are made from GOTS certified organic cotton.